Screaming like a little kid

attractions - action figure

October 7, 2005|By Eric Michael, Sentinel Columnist

Love a good scare?

Me too. Kick-starting that "fight or flight" mechanism buried deep in our mammalian brains can be a great thrill. And there's nothing like a quick shot of adrenaline to get the party started, especially under safe, controlled circumstances, such as a good horror movie, or better yet -- a haunted house.

Yeah, it's that time of year again -- Halloween.

So, on a selfless mission to serve you, I spent last Friday and Saturday nights being chased, taunted and tormented by creeps of all sorts at Universal Orlando's Halloween Horror Nights 15 and Busch Gardens Tampa's Howl-O-Scream 2005.

The two theme-park powerhouses have unleashed their most demented minds in an attempt to freak you out with an annual onslaught of haunted houses, themed shows and other Halloween escapades.

And I saw it all, from chain saw-waving bikers to camouflaged bush-creatures, faceless ghouls in black capes and scantily clad stilt-walkers channeling Christina Aguilera in her "Dirrty" days. But the scariest thing at both parks was the crowds and the horror of how much cash visitors handed over to stand in line and sweat.

Screams R Us

Haunted houses are nothing new, but Universal Orlando and Busch Gardens Tampa have taken the classic format to brave new depths of depravity.

The attractions at both parks blend high-tech scare tactics with old-school tricks, combining lasers, odors and sound effects with smoke, mirrors and invisible strings hanging from the ceiling. They're all effective at creating convincing dioramas, but the true terror in these houses is all thanks to the costumed characters who jump out at just the right moments.

Without these enthusiastic actors, this shock-and-awe technique would whimper and fail. A few merely popped out with a shout while the best really sliced the ham up thick. The stable gal in H.H.N.'s Blood Ruins was truly convincing, screaming at us to get out while we still could. I'd be shocked if her voice survived the night. It's just too bad all the characters didn't have her devotion to the craft of being creepy. It really adds to the effect when they're feeling it.

In a head-to-head comparison of Halloween Horror Nights 15 and Howl-O-Scream 2005, it's tough to pick a winner. The two titans of terror are similar in nearly every way, but some things were better than others.

Haunted houses winner: Howl-O-Scream 2005

The attractions at H.O.S. were on average longer, more creative and more intense.

The 3rd Dementia house offered wild 3-D effects, complete with paper glasses and character costumes designed to showcase the illusion. In The Hunted, I watched the woman behind me get dragged through a hole in the wall by a ghostly figure, never to be seen again. Obviously, she was part of the show, a ringer planted in line to trick us. It was a true shocker and the best bit I saw all weekend.

For overall park atmosphere and fun, H.H.N. was my favorite. The Universal folks have packed nearly nonstop mayhem into Islands of Adventure, affording very few dead spots. And there seemed to be more creepy characters roaming the park than at H.O.S.

The Terra Throne was a fiery, sexy spectacle welcoming guests near the entrance while the green laser and smoke "ceiling" at Cemetery Mine was a jaw-dropping effect, and the heavy metal soundtrack and raunchy go-go dancers along Blood Thunder Alley were straight out of Robert Rodriguez's From Dusk Till Dawn.

Value winner: Neither

Even with at least a half-dozen houses and several daytime attractions running, I still found both Hall-o-fests a bit overpriced and overcrowded. The opportunity to ride coasters in the dark at both parks helped the value factor but not enough.

Consider my math. With tickets running in excess of $50 and wait times breaking the hour barrier for haunted houses that averaged around four minutes, the ratio just wasn't working. And I felt rushed through the houses at both parks. There just wasn't enough time to pause and dig the marvelously macabre decorations. If they had sent guests through in small groups with a few minutes in between, it might've felt as though you were in a horror flick, not simply a supercharged funhouse.